Our bud Jonathan Bailor already shared with us the signs of sugar addiction. And today he’s giving us easy strategies to break sugar addiction without going without your favorite treat forever!
In part one of this post, we showed how sugar addiction is real and is a real problem. Now, let’s explore three simple steps we can take to avoid and break sugar addiction without having to give up sweets forever.
3 Steps to Break Sugar Addiction
Step 1: Eat at least three servings of non-starchy vegetables and 30 grams of nutrient-dense protein at every meal. The easiest way to do this at breakfast is by combining a bunch of spinach, kale, mushrooms, peppers, onions, etc., with eggs or egg whites and ham or turkey in a scramble, frittata or omelet. (Note: Non-starchy vegetables are vegetables that can be eaten raw, and nutrient-dense proteins include seafood, grass-fed beef, lean conventional beef, poultry, eggs and low-fat cottage cheese or plain Greek yogurt.) A less typical but quicker approach is to make a green smoothie. This is a simple as putting three to five large handfuls of spinach, frozen strawberries, low-sugar vanilla whey protein powder, water and some ice into a blender. Believe it or not, it tastes like a strawberry cream milkshake — you won’t even taste the spinach.
For lunch, stir-fry or giant salads of mixed greens, romaine lettuce or spinach topped with chicken or salmon are excellent options.
At dinner, simply enjoy a double-serving of a protein-rich main dish (meat or seafood) and a triple-serving of a non-starchy vegetable side. Fill your plate with so much “good stuff” that you don’t have any room for starchy fillers.
Step 2: Then eat whole-food fats and low-sugar fruits. After increasing our intake of non-starchy vegetables and nutrient-dense protein, let’s focus on filling any remaining room in our stomachs with whole-food fats such as nuts and seeds — especially exceptionally healthy cocoa/cacao, coconut, chia seeds and flax seeds. We can also enjoy low-sugar fruits, such as berries, and citrus fruits, like oranges and grapefruits, but keep in mind that if we are significantly overweight, we’re more likely to reach our goals by focusing on whole-food fats rather than low-sugar fruits.
Step 3: Enjoy natural non-caloric sweeteners. Natural non-caloric sweeteners, such as stevia, are not addictive, fattening or harmful. Other options are luo han guo, xylitol and erythritol. Feel free to use these as much as you like to sweeten beverages, desserts and sauces. Non-caloric artificial sweeteners such as Splenda, Equal or Sweet ‘n Low should be avoided if at all possible, but are not nearly as addictive, fattening, nor harmful as caloric sweeteners like sugar and high-fructose corn syrup.
A simple and effective three-step approach to avoiding addiction is to fill our lives and stomachs with so much of the good stuff, that we don’t have any room for the bad stuff.
We couldn’t agree more, Jonathan. Thanks for the plan on how to break sugar addiction! If you dug the info above, be sure to check out Jonathan’s book, his podcast and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube!
Anyone had success breaking a sugar addiction? Did you do it with a similar type way of eating or something entirely different? Spill your sweet secrets… —Jenn
